Do Scientific Geeks Dream of Cloned Sheep?
by BithaBlu
Summary: Zane's subconscious knows more than he does.


Title: Do Scientific Geeks Dream of Cloned Sheep?  
Author: BithaBlu  
Rating: Crayons taste like purple!  
Character: Zane  
Spoilers: Through 4.07, "Stoned"  
Summary: Zane's subconscious knows more than he does.  
A/N: I picture Zane as a guy with lists. Lots of lists. And- yeah- I bastardized the title. Bad me. *slaps hand*

For the fourth time in as many days, Zane woke abruptly in a cold sweat. A quick look at the clock let him know that he was, once again, awake before 4am. This was getting ridiculous. Zane had always had vivid dreams but this was out of control. And tiring. So freaking tiring. Remnants of the dream still floated in his head, though, so Zane reached for the light.

Rubbing his eyes against the brightness of the light, Zane sighed and opened the drawer of his nightstand. The dreams had gotten weird enough that he had started recording them and analyzing them after his morning shot of caffeine. For two months, the strange acid trip that he called his subconscious had been trying to tell him something. Unfortunately, the message was too scrambled to figure out most of the time.

Even the dreams that were easy to interpret had some quirky nuances. The night after a bullet had appeared in Jo's chest, Zane had dreamed that he had stood in front of a white board covered with a formula. The equation was simple- the chemical composition of a human being. Of course, it had helped that it had been drawn in a rather detailed version of a feminine form. And as he had been studying it, trying to figure out why he was dreaming of it, a shot had rang out and a hole had appeared in the middle of the white board. The writing had slid down off the board and pooled on the floor.

Yeah- that one had been pretty easy to interpret. He had been worried about Jo. Thanks brain. He hadn't realized that at all while sitting bedside staring at her just to make sure she was still breathing. Now if only he could understand _why_ he had been worried about someone who had once threatened to gag him with his own testicles, life would be perfect. Or, at least, back to whatever passed as normal in Eureka.

The weird thing was that there had been anomaly in the composition. All the trace compositions should have been at the bottom but there was one small one near the top. Actually, it was written where the bullet had shot. For some bizarre reason, Zane's subconscious had included the formula for a diamond in the white board diagram.

So even the easy dreams didn't make sense.

There were reoccurring themes though. Melting clocks were fairly prolific despite the fact that Zane hated that particular piece of Dahli's. Hallways and distorted mirrors showed up a lot. Lately, every dream had ended with storm clouds rolling in and a bright, white light- as though lightening struck everywhere at once and destroyed it all.

Freud would have a field day with him.

Lupo was there more often than not but that was normal. Hell, she haunted his dreams and had since the day he had met her. Jo was the reason that no matter who he was sleeping with, Zane never actually slept with anyone. She caused problems for him whether he was awake or not. Of course, it didn't help that he talked in his sleep.

Although, talking in his sleep had gotten him his own pillow. Zane had woken up one morning during his second incarceration to find the sheriff laughing his ass off. Between fits of laughter, Carter had mentioned that if Jo had heard what Zane had said while crashed out in the cell, they'd be hosing blood off the entire interior of the sheriff's station. After that incident, there had been an extra plush pillow in the cell that effectively muffled anything said while sleeping.

Zane sighed and propped himself up against the headboard. One tap of the stylus and a new page opened up. With a quick label of the date and time, Zane started writing down all the details he could remember.

He had been in one of GD's hallways and it had been lined with open doors. The first room he could remember had contained Fargo, Lupo and a giant rat wearing a fedora. Lupo and Fargo had been trying to hide the unusually sized rodent behind a wall of paper but, before Zane could look any closer, Lupo slammed the door shut.

In the next room, Fargo had just been standing there wearing a mask of his own face. Nothing else. Just Fargo masquerading as himself. Zane had taken a step forward to see if anything else was in there but Carter magically appeared and closed the door.

Zane couldn't remember what had been in the third room but that door had gotten shut in his face too.

By the time he had reached the fourth door, Zane had learned to not try to get in the room. He just watched- from a safe distance- as Jo started to keel over in the infirmary. Carter caught her and helped her out of the room. Away from the doctors and medicine- which didn't make sense. Through the window, Zane saw them talking and Jo just kept looking sicker and sicker by the second. Despite knowing what would happen, Zane took a step forward to yell at her to get back in the infirmary. Dr. Blake had blocked him and, with a sad shake of her head, she shut the door.

Then all the doors in the hallway slammed shut.

There had been one of Fargo's 'inspirational' posters on the wall. Zane only remembered it because of the odd message- _'Friends don't let friends destroy the universe. Think smart, dumbass, before time's up.'_

The only thing that poster inspired was confusion.

Time jumped and somehow Zane ended up in a room with two Lupo statues. The first Jo was the same bitch that had spent the past few years bouncing his ass into whatever cell was closest. Her face was set with an expression of scorn and annoyance.

The second Lupo statue was exactly the same as the first except for two things. First of all, the expression on her face was totally different. She looked... sad. Wistful. She looked as though her someone had kicked her puppy or something. This was the Jo that had let him out of the cell when Mansfield had wanted to ship him off to some federal pen. The Jo that wasn't a hardcore raging bitch with no sense of humor. The Jo that had smiled at him.

Oh, and the second difference? The second Jo was wearing a necklace.

There could have been more inconsistancies but the storm clouds had rolled in (despite being in doors) and the world disappeared in a flash of white.

It was at that point that Zane had woken up. At four freakin' AM.

Zane groaned and hit save on the data pad. Now came the hard decision- try to sleep more or just get up and down extra caffiene to make up for the exhaustion? His brain chose that moment to be useful and reminded him that Zoe had asked him out for tonight.

The best part about seeing Zoe was being _seen_ with Zoe and what was the point of being seen if he looked like shit?

Decision made, Zane slumped over and let his head drop back down on his pillow. Analyzing the dream could wait and he needed to some sleep.


End file.
